Clarence Thomas
Clarence Thomas was born on the 23rd of June 1948 in a wooden shack in Pin Point, Georgia. Nothing about that tiny dwelling suggested a seat at the highest court in the land. Since 1991 he has sat on the Supreme Court of the United States, and only one justice in the Court's history has served longer.
His career raises puzzles that this documentary will pick apart. How did a child of that shack end up deciding the meaning of the Constitution for the whole country? Why did his path to the Court produce one of the bitterest Senate fights of the twentieth century? What does he actually believe, and why do other justices so often find themselves leaving him behind? And why does a man who writes opinions in such large numbers say so little out loud in the courtroom?
Pin Point was a small community near Savannah, founded by freedmen in the 1880s. Thomas was the second of three children born to M.C. Thomas, a farm worker, and Leola Williams. The family descended from enslaved people and spoke the creole language Gullah as a first language. His sister Emma was born in 1946 and his brother Myers in 1949.
The family tree reaches back to two enslaved people named Sandy and Peggy, born in the late 18th century. They were owned by a wealthy planter, Josiah Wilson of Liberty County. Sandy was later taken to Charleston, South Carolina, and registered to vote in 1867, after the Civil War.
In March 1951 a judge granted M.C.'s request for a divorce, after only three years of marriage. He had claimed that Leola neglected the children. M.C. moved to Savannah and then Pennsylvania, and he visited his children just once. Leola worked as a maid in Savannah during the week and came back to Pin Point on weekends. Custody went to her aunt.
When that aunt's house burned down in 1955, Leola brought her sons to a rented room in a Savannah tenement. It had an outdoor toilet. She then turned to her own father, Myers Anderson, who first refused. He agreed only after his wife threatened to throw him out.
Thomas and his brother moved in with Anderson in 1955. There they met indoor plumbing and regular meals for the first time. Anderson had little formal education, yet he had built a successful business delivering coal, oil, and ice. During the racial unrest and marches that shook Savannah from 1960 to 1963, he paid to bail out demonstrators. He also took his grandchildren to meetings promoted by the NAACP.
Anderson had converted to Catholicism, and he sent Thomas to a series of Catholic schools. After two years at the mostly black St. Pius X High School in Chatham County, Thomas moved to St. John Vianney's Minor Seminary on the Isle of Hope. He was the first black student at that segregated boarding school. He endured hazing but did well in class. He also spent long hours at the Carnegie Library, the only library for Blacks in Savannah until libraries were desegregated in 1961.
From the age of ten, Thomas spent his summers laboring for his grandfather. The boys helped build a house on a plot of farmland and put up fences. Anderson prized hard work and self-reliance, and according to Leola he beat the boys often. He never showed them affection, but he pressed hard on the value of an education. He also taught Thomas that "all of our rights as human beings came from God, not man", and that segregation broke divine law. Thomas has called him the greatest influence on his life.
In 1967 Thomas became the first in his family to attend college, and his destination was a Benedictine seminary in Missouri.
Conception Seminary College in Missouri took Thomas in 1967, and he planned to become a priest. Then Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. Thomas overheard a fellow student say he hoped King died, followed by a slur about black people. The remark pushed Thomas out of the seminary. He felt the church was not doing enough against racism, and he gave up the priesthood at the end of the semester.
At a nun's suggestion, he enrolled at the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts as a sophomore transfer, on a full academic scholarship. He was one of twenty black students recruited in 1968 by the college's president, John E. Brooks. The group also included the future attorney Ted Wells, the running back Eddie Jenkins Jr., and the novelist Edward P. Jones. That fall, Thomas and the others founded the college's Black Student Union. With no help from his grandfather, he paid his way by working as a waiter and dishwasher in the dining hall. Looking back, he said, "I was 19. My only hope was Holy Cross".
English professor Thomas C. Lawler remembered a student who "never talked very much in class". The Black Student Union saw a different Thomas. Jenkins said he "could turn on a dime and reduce you to intellectual rubble". Jones, who lived across the hall, sensed in him a fierce determination to get as far as he possibly could.
Thomas hung a poster of Malcolm X in his dormitory room and read The Autobiography of Malcolm X until the pages wore thin. When some black students faced harsher punishment than others, he proposed a walkout, and he left campus with 60 other black students. Priests negotiated their return, and administrators granted amnesty. In April 1970 he took part in the violent Harvard Square riots. He has said those protests began his turn toward conservatism and his disillusionment with the left.
Because Gullah was his first language, English had been a struggle, so he chose to major in English literature. It introduced him to black writers such as Richard Wright. On the 4th of June 1971 he graduated cum laude, ranked ninth in his class.
Yale Law School, Harvard Law School, and the University of Pennsylvania Law School all accepted him. He chose Yale for its financial aid and for the civil rights activism of some of its faculty. He was one of only 12 black law students there. He took the hardest courses and studied under the property law scholar Quintin Johnstone, his favorite professor. Dean Guido Calabresi later grouped Thomas with fellow student Hillary Clinton as excellent students with the same kind of reputation.
The degree, awarded in 1974, brought bitterness anyway. Law firms assumed affirmative action had gotten him in, and he felt their questions doubted his intelligence. In his 2007 memoir he described peeling a fifteen-cent sticker off a cigar package and sticking it on his diploma frame. It was a reminder of the mistake of attending Yale. He turned down a job offer from Hill, Jones, and Farrington, the Savannah firm where he had interned the summer before.
With no offers from the major firms, he went to work for a Missouri official named John Danforth.
On the 13th of September 1974, Thomas was admitted to the Missouri bar in Saint Louis. He was still short of money. He once tried, without success, to earn cash by selling his blood. Danforth, then Missouri's attorney general, had hired him as an associate.
From 1974 to 1977 Thomas served as an assistant attorney general. He was the only African American on Danforth's staff. He worked first in criminal appeals and then in revenue and taxation, litigating on his own and earning a name as a fair but controversial prosecutor. Years later he called it the best job he ever had.
When Danforth won a U.S. Senate seat in 1976, Thomas joined the legal department at Monsanto in Saint Louis. The work left him unsatisfied, so he went to Washington to rejoin Danforth as a legislative assistant. From 1979 to 1981 he handled energy issues for the Senate Commerce Committee. He had moved from the Democratic to the Republican Party during his Missouri years, and the newly elected Reagan Administration noticed a black conservative.
Pendleton James, Reagan's personnel director, offered him the post of assistant secretary for civil rights at the Department of Education. Thomas hesitated until Danforth and others pushed him to accept. Reagan nominated him on the 1st of May 1981, and the committee confirmed him on the 19th of June, when he was 32. Soon James proposed another job, chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Thomas suspected, as with the first post, that race had earned him the offer. He took it with Reagan's approval.
He chaired the EEOC from 1982 to 1990, enforcing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 at an agency that Democrats and Republicans alike resented. He reorganized it, improved its record-keeping, and refused to use racial quotas. He wanted criminal penalties for employers who discriminated. Though he criticized affirmative action, he also opposed the Reagan Administration's plan to remove such policies, because he thought they distracted from deeper economic problems. Settlement awards to victims tripled on his watch, while the number of lawsuits fell. Civil rights advocates complained about the absence of goals and timetables, and Thomas testified before Congress more than 50 times. Toward the end of his term, Congress looked hard at the agency's handling of age-discrimination cases.
In early 1989 President George H. W. Bush floated the idea of a federal judgeship. Thomas, then 41, said no, doubting he was ready for a lifetime post. White House Counsel C. Boyden Gray and Chief of Staff John H. Sununu pressed him, and Judge Laurence Silberman advised him to accept. A liberal coalition including the Alliance for Justice and the National Organization for Women began organizing against him before he was even nominated.
Bush nominated him on the 30th of October 1989 to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, in the seat Robert Bork had left. The Judiciary Committee backed him 12-1 in February 1990, and the Senate confirmed him on the 6th of March by 98-2. At 42 he was the court's youngest judge. He sat there for 19 months, wrote 19 opinions, and ruled in 145 cases, many on criminal matters. He got along warmly with colleagues, including Ruth Bader Ginsburg. One fellow judge described him as "talkative, gregarious on our court, and a real participant".
When Justice William Brennan retired in July 1990, Thomas was the favorite on President Bush's list of five candidates. Advisors including Attorney General Dick Thornburgh thought him too inexperienced, so Bush picked David Souter instead.
Thurgood Marshall announced his retirement on the 27th of June 1991, and this time Bush chose Thomas. On the 1st of July he called Thomas the "best qualified at this time". Thornburgh warned that replacing Marshall with someone not seen as sharing Marshall's views would make confirmation hard. Liberal groups planned to copy the campaign that had sunk Bork. Abortion-rights organizations, including the National Abortion Rights Action League, feared Thomas would help overrule Roe v. Wade.
Republican officials stressed his life story and courted African American groups. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the National Urban League were persuaded not to oppose him, partly because they thought he was Bush's last black nominee. On the 31st of July 1991 the NAACP board voted against endorsing him and announced its opposition the same day. The American Bar Association rated him "qualified", not "well qualified". It gave him its top marks for integrity and judicial temperament and a middling grade for professional competence.
Formal hearings opened on the 10th of September 1991. Thomas testified for 25 hours, the second-longest for any Supreme Court nominee. Having watched Bork damage himself by explaining his philosophy, he stayed reserved. His earlier writings often invoked natural law, so senators pressed him on it. He called it a "philosophical background" to the Constitution. Ninety witnesses testified for or against him. A motion on the 27th of September to recommend him favorably failed 7-7, and the Judiciary Committee voted 13-1 to send his name to the full Senate with no recommendation.
Then an FBI interview with Anita Hill, who had worked with Thomas at the EEOC, leaked to the press. It contained allegations of sexual harassment. On the 8th of October the final vote was postponed and the hearings were reopened. That had happened only twice before, most recently in 1925 with Harlan F. Stone's nomination.
Hill had grown up in Oklahoma and, like Thomas, graduated from Yale Law School. She had confided in a fellow Yale alumnus, James Brudney, but did not want to testify. She asked staff for Senator Joe Biden, the committee chair, to raise her claims anonymously, and Biden declined. California judge Susan Hoerchner backed her account. Hill declined an FBI interview, fearing her words would be twisted, and delivered a written statement instead. It said Thomas had pressed her to date him and had talked about sex at work despite her discomfort. The White House said the FBI found the allegations without foundation, while congressional officials said the bureau could reach no conclusion.
The hearings resumed on the 11th of October. In his opening statement, Thomas denied saying or doing anything that could have been mistaken for sexual harassment. He refused questions about his private life, saying he would not "provide the rope for my own lynching". The committee questioned Hill for seven hours. She called the conduct "behavior that is unbefitting an individual who will be a member of the Court". That evening Thomas returned, denied the claims again, and, prompted by Senator Orrin Hatch, denounced the proceeding as a "high-tech lynching for uppity blacks". The speech resonated with Southern blacks, and public opinion moved toward him.
Hill was the only person to testify publicly that he had harassed her. Angela Wright, who had worked under him at the EEOC, made similar claims. She was not called, and neither was a corroborating witness. Nancy Altman, who shared an office with him for two years, testified that she never heard him say anything sexist or offensive. Scholars who later revisited the hearings split, some siding with Thomas and some with Hill.
On the 15th of October 1991 the Senate confirmed Thomas 52-48. Forty-one Republicans and 11 Democrats voted yes, while 46 Democrats and two Republicans voted no. No confirmation had been so narrow in over a century. His nomination had been pending for 99 days. Justice Byron White swore him in as the Court's 106th justice, after a ceremony set for the 21st of October was postponed by the death of Chief Justice William Rehnquist's wife, Natalie. His commission was dated the 23rd of October. His first clerks included Gregory Katsas, Gregory Maggs, and Christopher Landau. As of 2024 he remains the latest justice confirmed by a Senate controlled by the party opposing the president who nominated him.
In his first 13 years on the Court, Thomas sided with Antonin Scalia in 92 percent of cases. Both were originalists. Over time they drifted apart, and Thomas leaned harder on the Constitution's original understanding and showed more readiness to overrule earlier decisions. Scalia once remarked, "he does not believe in stare decisis, period".
At a 2013 Federalist Society dinner, Judge Diane S. Sykes asked whether precedent held much force for him. His answer was "Oh, it sure does, but not enough to keep me from going to the Constitution". Political scientist Stephen L. Wasby counted more than 250 concurring or dissenting opinions in which Thomas questioned precedents, urged reconsideration, or suggested overruling. In Gamble v. United States in 2019, he wrote that a demonstrably incorrect decision is "tantamount to making law". In Franchise Tax Board of California v. Hyatt that same year, he wrote the 5-4 opinion overruling Nevada v. Hall from 1979, noting that stare decisis "is not an inexorable command". Justice Breyer's dissent asked what might fall next and raised Roe v. Wade.
By the 1st of October 2012, Thomas had written 475 opinions in the 1,772 cases the Court had decided since he arrived. That total included 171 majority opinions, 138 concurrences, and 166 dissents. In 2016 he wrote nearly twice as many opinions as any other justice.
On the 24th of September 1999 he delivered the Dwight D. Opperman Lecture at Drake University Law School, titled "Why Federalism Matters". He argued that federalism protects individual liberty by dividing political power. His longest opinion was a dissent in U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton in 1995. There he argued that states could set term limits for members of Congress, because their citizens are "the ultimate source of the Constitution's authority". That same year he concurred in United States v. Lopez, which struck down the Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990.
In Gonzales v. Raich in 2005, the Court held that federal drug law reached homegrown marijuana. Scalia joined the majority, but Thomas dissented. He warned that if Congress could regulate such cultivation, it could regulate "virtually anything". In Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District No. 1 v. Holder, he stood alone in wanting to throw out Section Five of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. He noted that black voting rates in seven covered states exceeded the national average, and he later voted with the majority in Shelby County v. Holder.
On presidential power he leans the other way. In Hamdi v. Rumsfeld in 2004, he dissented from the majority and argued that courts should defer completely to the executive's finding that Yaser Esam Hamdi was an enemy combatant. In Hamdan v. Rumsfeld in 2006 he was one of three dissenters. In both he leaned on The Federalist Papers.
By 2022, the Court had moved right, and so had Thomas's influence. In that year he wrote an opinion expanding Second Amendment rights and contributed to the overruling of Roe v. Wade.
In 1995, McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission became Thomas's first free speech opinion. He agreed with the result but not the reasoning, and he did not join the majority. He pointed instead to the widespread use of anonymous pamphlets and columns in the Founding Era. On the same day the Court decided Rubin v. Coors Brewing Company, in which he wrote his first free speech majority opinion. It struck down a 1935 federal law banning beer labels from stating alcohol content, with every justice joining. A 2002 study by Eugene Volokh ranked him second most likely to uphold free speech claims, tied with Souter. He also believes all limits on federal campaign contributions are unconstitutional.
Schoolchildren fare differently. In Morse v. Frederick in 2007 he argued the Court should overrule Tinker v. Des Moines, the 1969 armband case. In Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. he was the lone dissenter, siding with a school that punished a student for a profane social media message.
In 2022 Thomas wrote the majority opinion in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen, guaranteeing law-abiding citizens the right to carry firearms in public. It said the government must show a regulation fits the nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation. Justice Breyer's dissent said courts should weigh the dangers of gun violence. In 2024, Thomas was the sole dissenter in United States v. Rahimi, which concerned a federal ban on gun possession by people under domestic restraining orders. The other eight justices said the law could be applied constitutionally. Thomas found the historical analogies too weak.
One of his first cases was Hudson v. McMillian, in which guards had beaten a prisoner, leaving a cracked lip, a broken dental plate, and loosened teeth. Thomas dissented alone, writing that harm of that kind might be immoral or criminal but was not cruel and unusual punishment. Editorial criticism poured down on him, and he answered that only the illiterate or the malicious could read his opinion as supporting beatings.
In Adarand Constructors v. Peña, he wrote that laws distributing benefits by race were morally and constitutionally equivalent to laws built to subjugate a race. In Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1, he warned about "elites bearing racial theories". He joined the majority in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which struck down affirmative action in college admissions, and read his concurrence aloud from the bench, which is rare.
On abortion, he has said the Constitution does not address the subject. In Stenberg v. Carhart in 2000 he dissented, calling the majority's insistence on a health exception "a fig leaf barely covering its hostility to any abortion regulation by the States". In his 2019 concurrence in Box v. Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky, he compared abortion and birth control to eugenics. Historian Adam Cohen, whose book he cited, publicly said Thomas had misread it. In his concurrence in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization in 2022, Thomas wrote that any substantive due process decision is "demonstrably erroneous". He urged reconsidering Griswold v. Connecticut, Lawrence v. Texas, and Obergefell v. Hodges.
In Lawrence v. Texas in 2003, he called the Texas sodomy law "uncommonly silly" and said he would vote to repeal it as a legislator. Yet he found no right to privacy in the Constitution, so he did not vote to strike it down. In United States v. Skrmetti in 2025, he joined five other conservative justices to uphold Tennessee's ban on puberty blockers and hormone therapy for minors.
From February 2006 to February 2016, Thomas read his opinions from the bench but asked no questions in oral argument. By May 2020 he had asked questions in two arguments since 2006. Across roughly 2,400 arguments since 1991, he had spoken in 32. He has offered several reasons. He felt self-conscious about how he speaks, he preferred listening to the lawyers, and he found it hard to get a word in. In 2013 he said it was "unnecessary in deciding cases to ask that many questions", and that the Court should "allow the advocates to advocate". The source notes that his Gullah upbringing may have shaped his speaking and listening habits.
The quiet fit a wider pattern in his first years. After the scrutiny of his confirmation, Thomas believed in producing results without regard to how he looked in public. His bold style set him apart from Justices Harry Blackmun and Sandra Day O'Connor. It pushed O'Connor toward liberal positions and drew Scalia closer. Meanwhile he formed a friendship with Justice Byron White, with whom he shared several interests, and found support from Justice David Souter. Critics, including some who had backed his appointment, attacked his decisions.
Since 2020 he has begun putting more questions to counsel. And during Donald Trump's second presidency, he swore in several cabinet officials.
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Common questions
Where was Clarence Thomas born?
He was born on the 23rd of June 1948 in a wooden shack in Pin Point, Georgia, a community near Savannah that freedmen founded in the 1880s.
How narrow was his Senate confirmation?
The Senate confirmed him 52-48 on the 15th of October 1991, the narrowest margin for approval in more than a century.
Why was Thomas known for his silence in oral arguments?
He has said he felt self-conscious about how he speaks, preferred to listen to the advocates, and found it hard to get a word in. He began asking more questions in 2020.
What is Thomas's view of precedent?
He holds that the Court should correct a demonstrably erroneous decision rather than follow it, and he has written many opinions urging that earlier rulings be reconsidered or overruled.
All sources
255 references cited across the entry
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- 2Justice Thomas has made the new oral argument format a winnerCarrie Severino — 2021-08-18
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- 4NewsIn Supreme Court Justices' Histories, a Story of Immigration in AmericaAbbie VanSickle et al. — March 31, 2026
- 5NewsSister of High Court Nominee Traveled Different RoadKaren Tumulty — July 5, 1991
- 6Historical Marker Dedication: St. Pius X High SchoolFebruary 16, 2022
- 8NewsWhere Clarence Thomas Entered an Elite Circle and Opened a Door to the CourtAbbie VanSickle et al. — July 12, 2023
- 9NewsJudge Portrayed as a Product Of Ideals Clashing With LifeDavid Margolick — July 3, 1991
- 10NewsFor Sotomayor and Thomas, Paths Diverge at RaceJodi Kantor et al. — June 6, 2009
- 11How This Holy Cross Leader Helped Clarence Thomas And Ted WellsDiane Brady — January 17, 2023
- 12Clarence Thomas honored at Holy CrossJacqueline Reis — January 26, 2012
- 13Obituaries Thomas C. LawlerJuly 21, 2022
- 14Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas SpeaksDiane Brady — Bloomberg — March 12, 2007
- 15Speech to the National Bar AssociationClarence Thomas — July 28, 1998
- 16NewsThe Long Crusade of Clarence and Ginni ThomasDanny Hakim et al. — February 22, 2022
- 17NewsClarence Thomas: A Silent Justice Speaks OutGreenburg, Jan Crawford — September 30, 2007
- 18MagazineFrom Clarence Thomas to PalinDahlia Lithwick — September 27, 2008
- 21BookWeekly Compilation of Presidential DocumentsOffice of the Federal Register — 1981
- 22PN315 — Clarence Thomas — Department of EducationJune 26, 1981
- 25BookAnnual ReportU.S. Government Printing Office — 1980
- 26BookCombined Annual ReportU.S. Government Printing Office — 1991
- 28JournalSenateUnited States Government Publishing Office — March 6, 1990
- 30BookThe Judicial BranchKermit Hall et al. — Oxford University Press — 2006
- 31NewsThomas Rated 'Qualified' for Court by ABARobert L. Jackson — August 28, 1991
- 32NewsBar Association Splits on Fitness Of Thomas for the Supreme CourtNeil A. Lewis — August 28, 1991
- 33NewsNatural Law, An Elusive TraditionKenneth Woodward — September 23, 1991
- 34NewsThe Natural Law According To Clarence ThomasAaron Epstein — August 30, 1991
- 35NewsJudiciary Committee Votes On Recent Supreme Court NomineesSenate Committee on the Judiciary
- 36NewsFlashback: The Anita Hill Hearings Compared to TodayMikayla Bouchard et al. — 2018-09-27
- 37NewsLaw Professor Accuses Thomas Of Sexual Harassment in 1980'sNeil A. Lewis — October 7, 1991
- 38NewsHow the FBI's flawed investigation of Clarence Thomas became a model for Kavanaugh'sAvi Selk — October 2, 2018
- 40Pollitt, Katha. Subject to Debate: Sense and Dissents on Women, Politics, and Culture, page 161 (2001): "The question Hill's testimony placed before us was not whether Thomas was guilty of a legally a
- 41Here are some of the questions Anita Hill answered in 1991Grace Segers — CBS News — September 19, 2018
- 42NewsAnita Hill's Testimony and Other Key Moments From the Clarence Thomas HearingsJulia Jacobs — September 20, 2018
- 43BookMedia matters: race and gender in U.S. politicsJohn Fiske — University of Minnesota Press — 1998
- 45NewsThe Thomas Nomination; Excerpts From an Interview With Another Thomas AccuserOctober 15, 1991
- 46NewsThe Thomas Nomination; On the Hearing Schedule: Eight Further WitnessesOctober 13, 1991
- 48NewsOne Angry Man, Clarence Thomas Is No VictimRuth Marcus — October 30, 2007
- 49Supreme Court Appointment Process: Senate Debate and Confirmation VoteBarry J. McMillion — Congressional Research Service — September 7, 2018
- 51JournalSenateUnited States Government Publishing Office — October 15, 1991
- 52NewsThe Thomas Confirmation; How the Senators Voted on ThomasOctober 16, 1991
- 53NewsThe Thomas Swearing-In; A Festive Mood at Thomas Swearing-InDowd — October 19, 1991
- 54NewsThomas Sworn in as 106th JusticeLinda Greenhouse — October 24, 1991
- 56NewsHow to Read the ConstitutionOctober 20, 2008
- 57BookThe Supreme Court and the Development of Law Through the Prism of Prisoners' RightsSmith, Christopher — Palgrave Macmillan — 2016
- 58BookConstitutional Myths What We Get Wrong and How to Get It RightRaphael, Ray — The New Press — 2013
- 60MagazineBrothers in LawWilliam Baude — June 30, 2004
- 61NewsIn Steps Big and Small, Supreme Court, Moved RightLinda Greenhouse — July 1, 2007
- 62JournalThe Textualism of Clarence Thomas: Anchoring the Supreme Court's Property Rights Jurisprudence to the ConstitutionNancie Marzulla — 2002
- 64NewsBook Review – It seems Justice Thomas is still seeking confirmation – My Grandfather's Son A Memoir Clarence ThomasEdward Lazarus — October 1, 2007
- 66BookPublic Opinion and the Rehnquist CourtThomas Marshall — SUNY Press — 2008
- 67NewsExecutive Branch Reined InDavid Von Drehle — June 29, 2004
- 68NewsJustice Clarence Thomas's moment may finally have arrivedJessica Gresko — Associated Press — May 4, 2019
- 69NewsPassed By for Decades, Clarence Thomas Is a New Symbol of the Trump EraNicholas Casey — May 18, 2020
- 70News22 former Justice Thomas clerks have jobs thanks to TrumpMark Sherman — Associated Press — August 4, 2018
- 71The Clarence Thomas EffectEmma Green — July 10, 2019
- 72The Clarence Thomas Clerk Mafia: Legal Brain Trust Of The Trump AdministrationDavid Lat — August 3, 2017
- 73To understand this Supreme Court, watch Clarence ThomasHenry Gass — July 8, 2021
- 74NewsClarence Thomas awaits his chance to drive the conservative majority on abortion and gunsAriane De Vogue — CNN — May 20, 2021
- 75God Save the Clarence Thomas CourtWilliam McGurn — May 24, 2021
- 76Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has a lot to celebrateJessica Gresko — AP — June 30, 2022
- 77Clarence Thomas is at the peak of his powerSam Baker — July 2, 2022
- 78How Clarence Thomas Finally Triumphed in 30-Year Battle Against Roe v. WadeDarragh Roche — June 24, 2022
- 79At the Supreme Court, at the White House and at his house, Clarence Thomas is the go-to justice to swear in Trump's CabinetJoan Biskupic et al. — February 6, 2025
- 80NewsJustice Clarence Thomas Calls for Reconsideration of Landmark Libel RulingAdam Liptak — 2019-02-19
- 81NewsJustices Split Over the Power of PrecedentAdam Liptak — May 13, 2019
- 82Immigration / Temporary Restraining Order /Preliminary InjunctionDecember 7, 2018
- 83Trump, President of U.S., et Al. V. E. Bay Sanctuary Cov., et Al.U.S. Supreme Court — December 21, 2018
- 88Shelby County v. Holder, 570 U.S. ___ (2013).
- 89How the Justices Voted in Free Speech Cases, 1994–2000" (Updated), 48 UCLA L. Rev. 1191Eugene Volokh — 2001
- 90NewsSupreme Court strikes down campaign contribution limitsMark Sherman — PBS — April 2, 2014
- 91Supreme Court backs cheerleader over school in free speech caseIan Swanson — June 23, 2021
- 92NewsSupreme Court Says Texas Can Reject Confederate Flag License PlatesAdam Liptak — June 18, 2015
- 99NewsSupreme Court strikes down New York gun law along ideological linesJosh Gerstein — June 23, 2022
- 107NewsPrecedent, Meet Clarence Thomas. You May Not Get Along.Adam Liptak — March 4, 2019
- 115Thomas in rare occurrence reads affirmative action opinion from benchJared Gans — June 29, 2023
- 116The Real Clarence ThomasJohn Yoo — October 9, 2007
- 120Supreme Court hamstrings states' efforts to defund Planned ParenthoodTucker Higgins — CNBC — December 10, 2018
- 121US Supreme Court Justices won't hear states' appeal over Planned ParenthoodWITI (TV) — December 10, 2018
- 122Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts joins liberal justices to block Louisiana abortion clinic lawGrace Segers et al. — CBS News — February 7, 2019
- 123NewsSupreme Court Stops Louisiana Abortion Law From Being ImplementedNina Totenberg et al. — February 7, 2019
- 124Kristina Box, Commissioner, Indiana Department of Health, et al. v. Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky. Inc., et alSupreme Court of the United States — 2019
- 125Clarence Thomas Knows Nothing of My WorkAdam Cohen — May 29, 2019
- 126NewsBiden, other critics fear Thomas's 'extreme' position on contraceptionMeryl Kornfield et al. — 2022-06-29
- 127Contraception, gay marriage: Clarence Thomas signals new targets for supreme courtJoan E. Greve — June 24, 2022
- 128Clarence Thomas: Court Should Reconsider Gay Marriage, Birth Control Decisions Next After Overturning RoeAlison Durkee — June 24, 2022
- 129NewsClarence Thomas says Supreme Court should 'reconsider' legalising same-sex marriage and contraception in wake of Roe decisionJenna Amatulli — June 24, 2022
- 133Supreme Court rejects bid by ex-Kentucky clerk who defied gay marriage ruling to block lawsuitKyle Balluck — October 5, 2020
- 134NewsJustices Thomas and Alito Lash Out at the Decision that Cleared Way for Same-sex MarriageArianne De Vogue et al. — CNN — October 5, 2020
- 135NewsSupreme Court will not hear Kim Davis same-sex marriage caseRobert Barnes — October 4, 2020
- 136NewsSupreme Court rejects appeal from florist who wouldn't make arrangement for same-sex weddingAriane De Vogue et al. — CNN — July 2, 2021
- 137Supreme Court declines to decide whether religious flower shop owner can refuse same-sex weddingsTucker Higgins — CNBC — July 2, 2021
- 138Gay couple wins case against florist after Supreme Court rejects appealDevin Dwyer — ABC News — July 2, 2021
- 139Supreme Court won't hear case involving transgender rightsAssociated Press — 2021-11-01
- 140NewsU.S. Supreme Court spurns Catholic hospital appeal over transgender patientAndrew Chung et al. — Reuters — 2021-11-02
- 143NewsA ten-year milestone for Scalia's silent partnerAriane de Vogue — February 22, 2016
- 144NewsJustice Clarence Thomas breaks 10-year streak, asks question in courtAriane de Vogue — February 29, 2016
- 145JournalJustice Clarence Thomas Finds His VoiceBrent Kendall and Jess Bravin — May 9, 2020
- 146NewsAmid pandemic, U.S. Justice Clarence Thomas has a question or twoAndrew Chung et al. — May 12, 2021
- 147NewsIt's Been 10 Years. Would Clarence Thomas Like to Add Anything?Liptak — February 1, 2016
- 149JournalClarence Thomas The QuestionerRonNell Andersen Jones et al. — 2017
- 150Pandemic proves Justice Thomas does have something to sayRonNell Andersen Jones et al. — May 7, 2020
- 151NewsTelephone arguments spotlight usually silent Clarence ThomasMelissa Quinn — May 7, 2020
- 152NewsJustice Clarence Thomas has found his momentJoan Biskupic — CNN — May 9, 2020
- 153NewsJustice Clarence Thomas, Long Silent, Has Turned TalkativeAdam Liptak — May 3, 2021
- 154NewsJohn Roberts is the chief. But it's Clarence Thomas's court.James Romoser — October 2, 2022
- 155NewsClarence Thomas: A Silent Justice Speaks Out: Part VII: 'Traitorous' Adversaries: Anita Hill and the Senate DemocratsJan Crawford Greenburg — September 30, 2007
- 156NewsJustice Thomas's Life A Tangle of Poverty, Privilege and RaceKevin Merida et al. — April 22, 2007
- 157NewsJustice Thomas marches to own tuneSeptember 3, 2001
- 158NewsJustice Thomas maps own course, at wheel of his 40-foot busMark Sherman — Associated Press — August 6, 2020
- 159Justice Clarence Thomas -- RV enthusiastAugust 6, 2009
- 160NewsClarence Thomas's $267,230 R.V. and the Friend Who Financed ItJo Becker et al. — 2023-08-05
- 161NewsJustice's wife launches 'tea party' groupKathleen Hennessey — March 14, 2010
- 162NewsJustice Thomas's wife Virginia Thomas now a lobbyistKenneth Vogel et al. — February 4, 2011
- 163NewsJustice Thomas's Wife Sets Up a Conservative Lobbying ShopEric Lichtblau — February 4, 2011
- 164NewsHouse Democrats say Justice Thomas should recuse himself in health-care caseFelicia Sonmez — February 9, 2011
- 165NewsGinni Thomas apologizes to husband's Supreme Court clerks after Capitol riot falloutRobert Barnes — February 2, 2021
- 167Ginni Thomas urged Trump's chief of staff to overturn election resultsMatthew Cantor — 2022-03-25
- 168Democrats demand Supreme Court's Clarence Thomas recuse himself from key 2020 election, Capitol riot cases over wife's push to overturn Biden winKevin Breuninger — CNBC — 2022-03-29
- 169NewsQuinnipiac poll: 52% of Americans say Justice Clarence Thomas should recuse himself from 2020 election casesShawna Mizelle — CNN — April 6, 2022
- 170BookCatholics and Politics: The Dynamic Tension Between Faith and PowerKristin E. Heyer et al. — Georgetown University Press — 2008
- 171NewsJustice Thomas Lashes Out in MemoirRobert Barnes et al. — September 29, 2007
- 172MagazineWhy do Catholics make up a majority of the Supreme Court?Allyson Escobar — America Press (Society of Jesus) — July 18, 2018
- 175Celebrity 'Rand Fans' – Clarence ThomasRobert James Bidinotto — The Atlas Society
- 176NewsSupreme DiscomfortKevin Merida et al. — August 4, 2002
- 177MagazineClarence ThomasBill Kauffman — November 1987
- 178Young Scholar, Now Lawyer, Says Clarence Thomas Groped Her in 1999Marcia Coyle — October 27, 2016
- 179NewsWoman accuses Clarence Thomas of groping her at a dinner party in 1999Nolan D. McCaskill — October 28, 2016
- 180Lawyer: Justice Thomas groped her in 1999David G. Savage — 2016-10-28
- 181Jill Abramson Smears Justice Thomas, Again. Part 3: Moira Smith's Allegations DebunkedCarrie Severino — 2018-02-19
- 182NewsJustice Thomas Reports Wealth of GiftsRichard A. Serrano et al. — December 31, 2004
- 183NewsLos Angeles Times reported about Justice Thomas' gifts 20 years ago. After that he stopped disclosing themDavid G. Savage — April 6, 2023
- 184NewsClarence Thomas and the BillionaireJoshua Kaplan et al. — April 6, 2023
- 185Justices shield spouses' work from potential conflict of interest disclosuresHailey Fuchs et al. — September 29, 2022
- 187NewsA guide to the friends and patrons of Clarence and Ginni ThomasShawn Boburg — November 9, 2023
- 188NewsClarence Thomas failed to report wife's income, watchdog saysKim Geiger — January 22, 2011
- 189NewsThomas Cites Failure to Disclose Wife's JobEric Lichtblau — January 24, 2011
- 190NewsClarence Thomas fixes reports to include wife's payCatalina Camia — January 24, 2011
- 191NewsJet-Setting With Clarence Thomas Puts Spotlight on an Eccentric BillionaireAbbie VanSickle — April 11, 2023
- 192NewsJustice Thomas accepted luxury travel for years from GOP donor, report saysJohn Wagner — April 6, 2023
- 193Who is Harlan Crow? His family connections run deep in DallasSteve Brown — April 6, 2023
- 194NewsClarence Thomas Had a Child in Private School. Harlan Crow Paid the Tuition.Joshua Kaplan et al. — May 4, 2023
- 195NewsJudicial activist directed fees to Clarence Thomas's wife, urged 'no mention of Ginni'Emma Brown et al. — May 4, 2023
- 197NewsClarence Thomas purchased his luxury RV with the help of a wealthy former healthcare executive: NYTCharles R. Davis — August 5, 2023
- 198NewsJustice Thomas's R.V. Loan Was Forgiven, Senate Inquiry FindsJo Becker — October 25, 2023
- 199Most of Justice Thomas' $267,000 loan for an RV seems to have been forgiven, Senate Democrats sayMark Sherman — 25 October 2023
- 201Wyden is 1 of 2 Democratic senators who want DOJ to investigate Justice ThomasSacha Pfeiffer — July 12, 2024
- 202NewsJustice Thomas Failed to Reveal More Private Flights, Senator SaysAbbie VanSickle — 2024-08-05
- 205NewsJustice Clarence Thomas Acknowledges He Should Have Disclosed Free Trips From Billionaire DonorJoshua Kaplan et al. — June 7, 2024
- 206NewsJustice Thomas discloses two 2019 trips paid for by Harlan CrowAnn E. Marimow et al. — June 7, 2024
- 207NewsJustices' gifts add up: Report reveals $3 million in handoutsKelsey Reichmann — 2024-06-06
- 208Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas accepted gifts worth millions of dollars over 20 years, analysis findsGabriel Cortés et al. — 2024-06-06
- 209NewsSupreme Court's Roberts turns court to the right as Barrett emerges as a key playerNina Totenberg — July 6, 2024
- 210NewsFederal courts won't refer Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to attorney general over ethicsLindsay Whitehurst — January 3, 2025
- 211NewsJudicial body won't refer Clarence Thomas to Justice Department over ethics lapsesZoë Richards — January 3, 2025
- 214Justice Clarence Thomas '71 Receives Honorary Degree from Holy CrossCollege of the Holy Cross — January 27, 2012
- 215College of the Holy Cross — Supreme Connections: Search Supreme Court DisclosuresSergio Hernandez et al. — 2023-12-21
- 217NewsThe Hotshot Has a HeartJanet Maslin — 1996-12-13
- 219News'So improbable, it's a novel': the strange story of Clarence and Ginni ThomasLauren Mechling — 2023-05-09
- 220NewsThe Clarence Thomas Stories That PBS Refused to TellJohn C. Danforth — News Corp — May 19, 2023
- 221NewsClarence Thomas has 30 days to resign if he wants millions from John OliverMaría Luisa Paúl — 2024-02-19
- 222BookJustices, Presidents, and Senators: A History of the U.S. Supreme Court Appointments from Washington to Bush IIHenry J. Abraham — Rowman & Littlefield Publishers — 2007
- 223JournalJustice Clarence Thomas's First Year on the U.S. Supreme Court: A Reason for African Americans to be ConcernedRudolph Alexander Jr. — January 1997
- 224BookFraternityDiane Brady — Spiegel & Grau — 2012
- 225JournalConstructed for Liberty: Justice Clarence Thomas's Understanding of Separation of PowersAdam M. Carrington — University of Chicago Press — Fall 2016
- 226JournalThe Current Justices of the US Supreme Court: Their Philosophies, Ideologies, and ValuesJesse H. Choper et al. — American Academy of Arts and Sciences — 1997
- 227BookClarence Thomas: Supreme Court JusticeVicki Cox — Infobase Publishing — 2008
- 228JournalA Fixture on a Changing Court: Justice Stevens and the Establishment ClauseErwin Chemerinsky — 2012
- 229JournalA Review: Rush to Judgment? Fast Reaction Polls in the Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas ControversyRucinski Dianne — Oxford University Press — Winter 1993
- 230BookJudging Thomas: The Life and Times of Clarence ThomasKen Foskett — William Morrow — 2004
- 231BookSupreme Conflict: The Inside Story of the Struggle for Control of the United States Supreme CourtJan Crawford Greenburg — Penguin Group — 2007
- 232BookThe Justices of the United States Supreme Court: Their Lives and Major OpinionsSusan N. Herman — Facts On File, Inc. — 2013
- 233BookThomas, ClarenceNicholas S. Zeppos et al. — Oxford University Press — 1992
- 234BookUnderstanding Clarence Thomas: The Jurisprudence of Constitutional RestorationRalph A. Rossum — University Press of Kansas — 2013
- 235JournalWhy I Admire Justice ThomasRobert S. Smith — 2009
- 236BookJudging Free SpeechSteven B. Lichtman — Penn State Law Review — 2009
- 237Journal"To Help, Not To Hurt": Justice Thomas's Equality CanonWilliam S. Consovoy et al. — August 2, 2017
- 238JournalAt the Front of the Train: Justice Thomas Reexamines the Administrative StateElbert Lin — August 2, 2017
- 239BookClarence Thomas and the Lost ConstitutionMyron Magnet — Encounter Books — May 7, 2019
- 240JournalHow Justice Thomas Determines the Original Meaning of Article II of the ConstitutionGregory E. Maggs — August 2, 2017
- 241JournalJustice Thomas and Stare DecisisGregory E. Maggs — Fall 2021
- 242BookFirst Principles: The Jurisprudence of Clarence ThomasScott Gerber — New York University Press — 2002
- 243BookStrange Justice: The Selling of Clarence ThomasJane Mayer et al. — Houghton Mifflin — 1994
- 244JournalThe Higher Education of Clarence ThomasJane Mayer et al. — 1994–1995
- 245BookSupreme Discomfort: The Divided Soul of Clarence ThomasKevin Merida et al. — Crown Publishing Group — 2008
- 246JournalStare Decisis and the Supreme Court(s): What States Can Learn from GambleZachary B. Pohlman — 2020
- 247JournalJustice Thomas, Criminal Justice, and Originalism's LegitimacyWilliam H. Pryor Jr. — August 2, 2017
- 248BookThe Enigma of Clarence ThomasCorey Robin — Metropolitan Books — 2019
- 249BookLimits of Constraint: The Originalist Jurisprudence of Hugo Black, Antonin Scalia, and Clarence ThomasJames B. Staab — University Press of Kansas — 2022
- 250JournalClarence Thomas: The Law School YearsAndrew Peyton Thomas — Spring 2002
- 251BookMy Grandfather's Son: A MemoirClarence Thomas — Harper — 2007
- 252BookThe Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme CourtJeffrey Toobin — Random House — 2007
- 253BookA Court Divided: The Rehnquist Court and the Future of Constitutional LawMark Tushnet — W. W. Norton & Company — 2005
- 254BookSupreme Court Appointments: Judge Bork and the Politicization of Senate ConfirmationsNorman Viera et al. — Southern Illinois University Press — 1998
- 255BookThurgood Marshall: American RevolutionaryJuan Williams — Three Rivers Press — 1998
- 256JournalClarence Thomas the QuestionerAaron Nielson et al. — June 2017
- 257BookClarence Thomas: A BiographyAndrew Peyton Thomas — Encounter Books — 2001